Irreplaceable
by pehpig
Summary: A little Hanji and Moblit story. I can't say I ship them romantically, but I do like the relationship they have. He seems proud to be her subordinate and willing to do anything for her.


**Summary:** Hanji comes up with a new plan to capture titans.

**Authors Note:** Hanji's sex has not officially been identified and the author of Attack on Titan, Hajime Isayama, has stated it's up to the reader to decide what she is. My version of Hanji depicted here may differ from yours.

The chalk scratched and squealed against the slate as Hanji scrawled lines and formulae across the chalkboard. The noise filled the silence in the otherwise empty room interrupted only by the writer's low chuckling.

'You see?" Nifa whispered in the hallway. "She's been like this since yesterday. I don't think she slept at all last night."

Pointing through the open door, she indicated the frantically working officer.

Moblit sighed. "You should have contacted me earlier."

Watching his squad leader work, there was no sign of fatigue. She scribbled and erased and made notes in a nearby ledger with energy and enthusiasm, barely able to contain herself as she worked through the problem. He'd seen her like this before. Left to herself, she would keep going until she passed out from exhaustion.

"I'd better do something." He muttered as he entered the room. She must have heard him come in. She spun around on her heel to face him, grinning from ear to ear.

"Ah, Moblit. I was wondering where you were." She said.

Uh-oh, he thought. She's got that crazy look in her eye. Indeed, her eyes glittered both from the lack of sleep and the frantic activity of her mind.

"You know what's the hard part about catching a titan?" She asked

"They're dangerous, gigantic flesh eating monsters?" He guessed.

"No." she responded. "Opportunity. It's not often we find an opportunity to catch one. While we can trap a titan practically anywhere, the risk of casualties to the expedition increases exponentially if we have to transport it. There's not enough payback for the risk such an operation will generate. But what if we could make the titan transport itself?"

"Oh no," Moblit groaned "not the riding thing again? The titan will just grab the rider and eat it."

"It could". Hanji conceded. "Unless you select one that _can't_ reach the rider."

Searching through the clutter on the table next to the chalkboard, she found a scrap of parchment and held it out to him.

"As you know, the seven meter class titans are often deformed. Some of them have badly misshapen limbs up to and including vestigial arms. I've had some contacts on Wall Rose keep an eye out for just such a specimen. I think this one will suit our needs."

Moblit took the paper seeing a rather crude sketch of a seven meter class titan. The picture showed a creature with a bulbous head and shrunken, useless arms.

"You want to capture this one?" He asked.

She nodded. "He's perfect. Besides being unable to reach someone riding, my contact says he travels alone, sticking close to this abandoned farming town." She indicated a map pinned to the wall with the town's location within Wall Maria marked with an X. "That's only a few hours ride from Klorva gate. We'll be able to sneak up on him at night without the risk of running into other titans. Then it will just be a matter of getting him back to the gate where we can wrap him up for research!"

"But how are we going to do that?" He asked.

"With this!" Hanji crowed waving her hand towards the chalkboard. "An optical occlusion directional indicator."

Moblit squinted at the drawing. "It looks like a blindfold."

"It is." Hanji confirmed. "Only different. This blindfold has spring loaded covers over both eyes. In order to steer the titan, the rider simply has to pull on the 'reins' in the direction they want to go. This will open up the cover on that eye and the titan will head in that direction."

"What if it doesn't?" Moblit asked. "What if it just stands there?"

Hanji looked shocked. Apparently that outcome never occurred to her.

"Well…then…at least we'll have learned something." She sputtered. She turned to her notes and began writing. Ripping the page from her notebook she handed it to Moblit.

"Here. Take this to the leather workers and harness makers shops. See how long it would take to make this. It doesn't have to be perfect. I want to mount an expedition as soon as possible before that titan wanders away. We might not get an opportunity like this again! Oh, and be sure to keep it quiet. No need for anyone else to know about this."

"Keep it quiet?" Moblit mused aloud. "Squad Leader, you _did_ get permission from the commander before deciding to do this, right?"

A ball of ice formed in his stomach as his superior laughed and laughed.

* * *

We're dead, Moblit thought as he watched the team working. Even if we succeed, Commander Smith is going to kill us all.

Finding the titan wasn't as easy as they had hoped. Most titans stopped moving when the sun went down going into a type of torpor. The team had to pick its way carefully past slumbering titans as they rode out in case one turned out to be an aberrant, active even during the night. When they reached the town, they lit their oil lamps to find their target. It hadn't been that easy. They used up most of the night wandering the deserted streets in the dark before they found it. Fortunately, the creature had stopped for the night near enough to some large buildings for the team to use their 3-D maneuver gear.

With the blindfold-like device assembled, the two men who were going to try and ride the titan were working on installation. It was bulkier than they had expected and the springs required a lot of strength to pull the covers backwards. Hanji decided a two man team would be needed to do the steering. They had crampons on their boots for better footing and thick leather gloves to protect their hands from the strain. As Moblit watched from a nearby roof, they seemed to be having some trouble. This was not good. The sun was going to be up any minute.

"He's perfect." Hanji sighed besides him.

"I agree." Moblit replied. "It's just like you said. There's no way it can reach the riders with those stubby arms and it would have been impossible to install the steering device out in the open without our 3-D maneuver gear."

"No, I'm not talking about that." She said leaning forward with her hands on her knees. "Just look at his eyes. He has such a merry twinkle in them. I'm sure he'll be a great research subject and teach us a lot of things. He's perfect!"

Twinkle in his eyes? Moblit wondered. He suddenly noticed there was sunlight bouncing off the titan's frog-like eyeball. TWINKLE IN HIS EYES!

"Men, be careful!" He shouted. "It's waking up!"

Maybe he shouldn't have shouted at them. They turned to look at him just as the monster smashed its head into the nearest wall. Both men tumbled to the ground. One clearly broke an arm. The other lay still. Instantly, the rest of the team swooped down from the rooftop to get them to safety. They barely got them away as the titan tried to stomp on their prone forms. They soon had them on the roof for triage. Hanji and Moblit ran over to the team as the medics looked them over.

"They'll be all right." The medic told them. "Though they're going to be hospitalized for a while."

"That's a relief." Moblit said. "I guess we'll have to write this off as a loss, eh Squad Leader?"

"No." Hanji disagreed. "We almost had him. We can't just give up."

"We're going to have to." Moblit argued. "Even if the team was ready to go, the titan is running away. Pretty soon it's going to move past the buildings and we won't be able to use our 3-D gear."

Turning around, Hanji could see it was true. The target was lurching its way down the street headed for the open plain.

"You're right." Hanji agreed. "If we're going to capture that titan, we're going to have to act now!"

Moblit's breath caught in his throat. Her tone said far more than her words did. Surely she wasn't going to…

"Squad Leader! No!"

Recklessly diving off the edge of the roof, Hanji was swinging as fast as her gear could carry her towards the fleeing giant. Moblit didn't remember following her. All he knew was he couldn't catch up. Like he was in a nightmare, nothing he did could close the gap between himself and his leader. He was vaguely aware of the rest of his team behind him as they raced over the dead, abandoned streets. Hanji whooped in triumph as she landed on the titan's back. She was well out of range by the time they came to the last building in town.

"Get the horses!" Moblit barked. "We'll follow that thing and slice it to pieces if we have to! We've got to save the Squad Leader!"

He ground his teeth in frustration as a few members of the team went to fetch the beasts. Every second they took meant the Squad Leader was even farther away, even more in a danger.

"Moblit, look!" Nifa said tugging at his sleeve and pointing.

Moblit couldn't be sure what he was seeing at first. Pulling out a telescope, he got a closer look.

"Well I'll be." He murmured. "She did it. She's steering the damned thing!"

Somehow, Hanji had completed installation on her own while on a moving titan. Judging from her direction, she was taking it straight back to Klorva gate.

"We've got the horses, sir!" One of the men shouted up at him. He lowered himself expertly in the saddle followed by the rest of the team.

"Get out in front of her." He ordered them "Use your signal flares. Make sure she doesn't run into more titans. We're taking this one home!"

Raising their fists in a cheer, they streamed out from the derelict town. Things became a nightmare jumble again as they formed around their Squad Leader. Moblit only remembered dust, sweat and fear as they turned this way and that to avoid random titans with Hanji laughing and whooping with joy on top of their prize the whole way. The blurry sight of Klorva gate was like seeing heaven itself.

"Ready the trap!" He shouted as he galloped inside. Flinging himself off his foam specked mount, he was just in time to see Hanji enter.

Yelling in triumph, Hanji leapt off the creature right before the trap was sprung. The spiked nets she had invented worked flawlessly. They wrapped around the seven meter giant, causing it to fall to the ground, immobile and harmless. Hanji lowered herself to the ground, disengaged her 3-D maneuver gear…and promptly fell down.

"Squad Leader!" Moblit yelped as he ran towards her.

"I'm all right" she insisted as she sat up. "I'm all right. I'm just a little tired. Give me a second to rest and I'll be fine. We still have a lot of work to do."

He reached out to help her to her feet. He felt the wetness as she took his hand. Blood. Her hands were lacerated and dripping. Her knees shook as she fought to stand up. She'd been steering this whole time with no gloves, no special equipment, using a device that was supposed to need a team of two. Without thinking, he swept her up into his arms.

"Moblit, what are you doing?" She complained. "Put me down at once!"

There was a time to be loyal and obedient and a time to be selectively deaf.

"You there." He ordered a random subordinate. "Get a wagon for the Squad Leader and a fresh horse for me. We're taking her back to HQ. Make sure that wagon is well padded. Nifa, ride ahead of us. Have a hot meal, a hot bath and a doctor ready when we get there."

"Moblit, you're being ridiculous." Hanji insisted. "I'll be fine with a little rest."

"You'll be even better with a proper meal inside you and some attention." He countered as he placed her on the back of the wagon. Medics covered her with a blanket and made sure she was comfortably positioned.

"But my notes" She protested. "I have to write them down while they're still fresh in my mind."

Moblit looked at her wounded, shaking hands.

"You can dictate them while you eat." He said. Her hands were in such bad shape, he'd probably need to feed her too.

"You don't need to do everything yourself Squad Leader." He gently scolded "Leave a little something for your subordinates sometime."

She looked at him in silence, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to come up with more protests. After a few seconds, she gave in.

"You're right." She sighed as she lay back into wagon bed. "What kind of leader would I be if I didn't give you guys an opportunity to excel every once in a while?"

Moblit was glad she decided to stop struggling. He smiled and tapped the wagon, indicating they should go.

"I'll see you back at HQ Squad Leader." He called out as she pulled away. She waved weakly as she lay on her back.

"What would I do without you Moblit?" She asked just as the wagon turned the corner.

No Squad Leader, Moblit thought as he mounted a fresh horse. What would we do without you?


End file.
